OXON HILL, Md. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered absolution Thursday to conservatives for the GOP’s last two presidential losses, blaming the defeats on the lack of an actual conservative atop the ticket.

“The popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals, as evidenced by the last two presidential elections,” he said. “That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012.”

The swipe at Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney betrayed a twinge of regret at Perry’s own disastrous bid last year. The nation’s longest serving governor hasn’t said whether he plans to run for the White House again. But the Conservative Political Action Conference, at a resort near Washington, has drawn a parade of 2016 contenders and would be a great place to start.

Perry’s 20-minute speech did sound like a trial balloon, though the ballroom at the Gaylord National had hundreds of empty seats as he spoke.

The house was packed two hours earlier for Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, favorites of the tea party set.

Still, the many hundreds on hand cheered Perry as he blasted President Barack Obama for sequester-related spending cuts, and as he vowed never to cave to pressure to expand Medicaid under the health care law known as Obamacare, despite the lure of three years of full federal funding.

“Unfortunately, some of our friends and allies in the conservative movement have folded in the face of federal bribery and mounting pressure from special-interest groups,” Perry said. Without far more flexibility than Washington has granted states, the costs will be unsustainable, he said.

That makes the program “one large, incremental step toward single-payer socialized medicine. … And I for one will not accept that as long as I am the governor of the state of Texas,” he said, drawing cheers.

Perry called on Obama to unleash growth by encouraging more domestic energy production. And he denounced the administration for “dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets” — a reference to the release of more than 2,200 illegal immigrants last month from detention facilities, partly in response to budget pressure.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined to respond directly to Perry’s comment, which echoed complaints from other Republicans.

ICE Director John Morton assured a House committee Thursday that no one who was released poses a threat to the public. He said the agency routinely moves detainees to cheaper forms of monitoring when possible.

CPAC ends Saturday with a final keynote speech from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Two of his colleagues, Rubio and Paul, were greeted as rock stars Thursday.

Rubio drew cheers by proclaiming that a belief in a “traditional” definition of marriage “does not make me a bigot.” He warned of China’s rising power and argued that when it comes to a way forward for Republicans, “We don’t need a new idea. There is an idea. The idea is called America, and it works.”

Next up was Paul, fresh off of a 13-hour filibuster last week to protest the use of armed military drones.

Hundreds of people in the crowd waving preprinted red, black and white “Stand With Rand” signs, suggesting a level of organization that could signal a budding national campaign.

While Rubio urged the party to stick to its roots, Paul took a different tack.

“The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don’t think we need to name any names, do we?” he said, calling for a “new GOP” that embraces liberty in “both the economic and personal sphere.”

“I will stand for that. I will stand for our prosperity and our freedom, and I ask everyone who values liberty to stand with me,” he said.